Another day, another Apple tablet titbit for the eager masses. Today, it's been claimed that the product will be delivered by Apple's chosen manufacturer in Q1 2010 - just the timing you'd expect for a device announced at the Macworld show in early January.
Moles cited by DigiTimes claimed said producer is Foxconn - aka Hon Hai …

COMMENTS

o yay..

Interesting stuff

It will be interesting to see how Apple handles the e-reading side of things. Will they close up and become publisher like Amazon and Sony, or will they be both closed (i.e. the ereader software must be approved by the iTunes store) and open (but any ereader producer may submit their software) at the same time? If Apple are completely closed, I will wait for something more open.

Shortage

400000 manufactured, 100000 released to distribution; cue the customary "shortage" due to overwhelming and unprecedented demand. Instant media frenzy, queues around the block, campouts at the Apple Store, etc. 21st century marketing at its finest.

iPad

All systems go then!

Tablets have never been a winner for anyone in the past, remember Compaq's failed attempt around 2001? One of the few companies with enough cachet to be able to pull this off is Apple. Interesting to see if this will be the crown on the cake or the turd in the water-pipe?!

@shaunm

@ AC, 12:16

Sorry, but your post reveals a lack of knowledge of the PC market when it comes to tablets. Compaq, HP, Archos, Toshiba, Gateway, Acer, etc. have all been making tablets over the last 8 years or so. While none of these tablets have replaced the traditional desktop/laptop format, that doesn't make them failure. Microsoft has made money on the OS, and the OEMs have made money on the hardware.

The tablets themselves are also pretty successful at what they do. I have an HP TC 1100. Its pressure-sensitive interface allows me to draw straight onto the screen, in photoshop, exactly as I would with a pencil & paper (so I can shade, press harder to go darker, softer for lighter, etc.). But I still have two desktops (one Win7RC and one Ubuntu Linux).

The problem with Apple's rumoured tablet is where to pitch it. If it only runs the iPhone OS, then what's the point? You can't run Photoshop, CorelDraw or Painter (or any other truly useful software) on the underpowered iPhone OS, so one of the biggest reasons to buy one (the ability to draw on the screen) as just evaporated. Sure, you can still play with it like you would an iPhone, but then why not just buy an iPhone?

On the other hand, if it runs a full copy of Snow Leopard and has a pressure sensitive touchscreen, then it will cost around the same to manufacture as a macbook (assuming all the other specs are inline/lower than the macbook). Which will make it significantly more expensive than current Windows tablets that have higher specs and can run all of the same or better software, and cost less.

Which begs the question, why would anyone buy an Apple tablet? The answer, as ever, is the fanboi mentality.